'Sudden cramps led to life-changing diagnosis - I was using the toilet 20 times a day'

Kirsty Heron drifted in and out of sleep as her TV played quietly in the background. She was exhausted after another restless night.

The 21-year-old picked up her phone and opened Instagram. She scrolled through the adverts from companies and posts of smiling friends. One had been on holiday, another at a music festival. They all looked so happy.

Kirsty should have been there with them. But life had become miserable since being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis – meaning she was set to spend another day crying in bed instead.

“I felt like my life had been put on hold,” Kirsty, from Swinton, told the Manchester Evening News.

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“For a young girl like me to have her life put on hold by an illness was upsetting. To be diagnosed with something you had never heard of before was scary.

“I was crying nearly every day because I thought I shouldn’t have to live my life like that at such a young age – waking up with no energy, not being able to eat or have fun.”

Ulcerative colitis is a long-term condition where the colon and rectum become inflamed. It can be painful, debilitating and can occasionally lead to severe complications.

Symptoms include diarrhoea, passing a small amount blood with stool, abdominal pain and cramping, rectal pain, urgency to defecate, inability to defecate despite urgency, weight loss and fatigue.

Kirsty, now 24, was diagnosed with the condition back in 2020. The admin worker was at home when she suddenly felt excruciating cramps – likening the agony to having a mouth ulcer in her stomach.

She had just climbed out of bed when she had the sudden urge to use the toilet. She then noticed a large amount of blood in the toilet bowl,